Marina Abramović was determined in her attempt to hold a cycle of performances entitled “Seven Easy Pieces” in the Guggenheim Museum in New York. More than ten years of preparation had preceded the performance of this complex work in November 2005. Having completed this extraordinary endeavor, Marina explains why she insisted on this space:
- Actually I didn’t want to hold this performance anywhere else but in the Guggenheim – I really wanted to perform it in a real museum space and not in an alternative setting where performances had been held before. In conversation with the Guggenheim’s curator I realized that the initial idea of Guggenheim architect Frank Lloyd Wright was to dedicate the museum exclusively to spiritual art. That was something I hadn’t been aware of and which was an additional reason that inspired me to choose this space. The preparations were long and the performance as such was physically really strenuous, but I still don’t feel I’ve finished it. I have dedicated this whole year to completing the performances through books and a movie. Only when both the book and the movie are finished, and when I present them in the same place where the performance was held, in the Guggenheim, on February 24, 2007, will I finally feel that the work is completed.
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These performances lasted each day, for seven hours, seven consecutive days and, according to “New York Times”, between 527 and 1450 visitors attended them every evening.
Marina Abramović wanted, as she says, to show that “the legacy of the art of performance can live only if the performance is held again”. The cycle, ironically entitled “Seven Easy Pieces”, which the artist presented in November 2005, in the Guggenheim Museum, demonstrated the complex relations between the historical tradition of performance art and the possibility of its contemporary life within the museum. Performance, introduced in the 1960s, implicates radicalism in opposing the museum as an institution. The cycle “Seven Easy Pieces” was the artist’s method to review the history of performance by re-performing her selection of famous works from the 1970s as well as her own early work from “Lips of Thomas” (1975). Having decided to return to these historical performances, Marina Abramović posed questions about the nature of performances; how long can they remain radical and provocative if performed in the mainstream space of a Guggenheim, and there was the more intimate question of how to cope with time and her own limitations? The mere fact that the artist had enough strength of will on her sixtieth birthday to expose her body to such physical and psychological hardship undermines the analytical aspect of perceiving the performance and goes beyond its primary objective.
After the enormously demanding physical and psychological activity to which the artist surrendered during seven days, on the last day the public had the opportunity to participate in a unique and fascinating experience.
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After the artist spent seven motionless hours on the top of ladders that were placed at a significant height, reaching the first floor of the museum, at five minutes to midnight, or five minutes before the end of the last performance – a living installation entitled “Entering the Other Side” – the artist unexpectedly addressed the public and asked everyone to close their eyes and imagine that they were with her “here and now”.
Only in the context of the preceding events, which Marina Abramović had already presented to the public, was it possible to understand the importance and the power of a seemingly banal act of collective fantasy, the “here and now”, now already irretrievably “then and there”.
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Critics and historians and all admirers of Marina Abramović’s art will now try to keep the “then and there” they witnessed as a lasting meaning in their memory, as an act of writing the history of performance.
Marina Abramović organized the celebration of her sixtieth birthday in the Guggenheim Museum and she also showed Babette Mangolte’s film “Seven Easy Pieces”, which was based on the performance that the artist held in the Guggenheim in November 2005. There were more than 350 dinner guests, and those who regularly attend such events said that they don’t recall a dinner organized in honour of an artist that drew as many artists, all of whom came to pay tribute to Marina Abramović. Among the guests were many famed artists of our time, like Cindy Sherman (with David Byrne), Kiki Smith, Orlain, Joan Jonas, Laurie Anderson (with Lou Reed), Marina’s former partner, the German artist Ulay, Matthew Barney (with his singer wife Björk), Shirin Neshat, many curators, critics, art historians, journalists, gallery owners and collectors. Marina Abramović organized the program – she delivered a speech in which she introduced the public to her family history, then followed several singular performances by young artist Ivan Civić, with a music programme performed by art star Antony (“Anthony and the Johnsons” Band), and she thanked everyone who had helped her with “Seven Easy Pieces”, which proved to be an exceptional performance.
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Marina arranged a special menu for the occasion, described in the programme somewhat ironically as a “mixture between democracy of the European Union and America, conceived so as to strengthen the body and elevate the soul”.
The main dish was provocatively named “Serbian lamb, slaughtered in the traditional manner”.
All guests received as a present a limited edition of the branded ceramic cup “Abramović Sixty”, created by Marina for this occasion.
This spectacle, as well as the branding of an artistic act and the artist herself, changes the view of the artist in today’s society. Or, perhaps, Marina is really unique.
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Though Marina’s birthday was a glamorous event, it was by no means an evening celebrating temporary success. This event was in itself a sort of performance in which the artist contributed to expanding the conventions of contemporary art.
| This year, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) awarded Marina Abramović for the best performance held in the United States of America in 2005/2006 season. Abramović received the Guggenheim Museum’s special recognition in November 2006. Abramović conceived the celebration of her jubilee sixtieth birthday as a review and completion of her work. | | 
